On Thursday, 24 August, in the first play-off match of the Conference League qualifying round, Dynamo Kyiv lost to Turkish side Besiktas 2:3. The match was nominally a home game for the Ukrainian team, but due to the war, it took place in Bucharest at the Giulesti Stadium. Here is the post-match press conference of the Ukrainian team's head coach Mircea Lucescu.
Mircea Lucescu- Someone might say that I am picking on the refereeing. But with such mistakes, we are the champions in terms of cancelled goals. And with Benfica in the season before last, they also cancelled it... They drew that line, rewound a minute of the game to consider some offside that didn't actually happen. In the penalty shootout, when the ball changed direction after a close-range shot and the Beşiktaş player hit Popov's clenched hand with his head, the referees also made decisions in favour of our opponent.
In general, the game was good on our part, if we exclude those mistakes that, unfortunately, are repeated. This is what upsets me the most. I talk about it, but they still happen... Both our team and the opponent played well, but we dominated and had good chances to score. But in episodes like the one with the cancelled goal, it's like your wings are clipped, and it's very difficult to get back into the game. We did it, the guys did well, but I am not satisfied with the result, nor with our mistakes.
- How will you prepare for the next game? What do you expect from it?
- We still have a chance. Today we played well against a strong opponent who may have been better than us in technical and physical terms, but we played well against them due to the organisation of the game, dedication and unity. We will try to play the same way in Istanbul, we have positive aspects, but we need to eliminate these mistakes that we make in defence and which lead to conceded goals. We have to play our game, oppose the opponent with our combination game, and believe that we can achieve the desired result.
- Did you enjoy the support of the fans?
- It's hard to ask the fans to support another team as much as their own when they are playing. Of course, we felt the support, maybe we wanted to feel it a little more, but it's a pity that we didn't repay the fans with a good result. It was a good game, but not the result... There is still a second match, I hope we play well, win, and return to Bucharest to play the group stage matches of the Conference League.
